To be honest, there's not much to look at in "Realidades Sumergidas: Cuban Architects as Artists" at the Octavia Art Gallery on Magazine Street.

The islandscapes by Havana School of Architecture senior lecturer Jose Antonio Choy are the sort of balmy tropical banalities you might find hung above the bagel toaster in a beachfront hotel breakfast bar.

The tiny translucent architectural renderings by Max Von Trott are better, but they're still not worth finding a parking spot on Magazine Street. The only interesting thing is this: Von Trott was among the artists employed by Cuban-born New Urbanist guru Andres Duany, to help visualize a new, better-planned Louisiana, in the wake of the 2005 storm and flood. Duany says the luminous watercolors aren't art at all; they're "instruments of persuasion" meant to convince the Crescent City and elsewhere to become better civilized -- under his guidance. That's why, he says, the streets in Von Trott's honey-tinted drawings are "paved with gold."

Duany will be the first to tell you that New Orleans has little interest in New Urbanist planning --or planning of any kind for that matter. Conceptually speaking, Von Trott's drawings are artifacts of the glinting future that that has since sunken from view.

Rating: Whatever

"Realidades Sumergidas" continues through Feb. 18 at Octavia Gallery, 4532 Magazine St., 504.309.4249. Choy's works are $1,300 to $6,000. The renderings from Duany's architectural firm are $500 to $750. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.